<<Print>>

Soon after the Martin Amidu discourse on the airwaves last Thursday, some persons were engaged in arguments as to whether the President would probe the allegation that Deputy Minister Samuel Ablakwa Okudzeto did plead on behalf of a judgment debt petitioner. While one school of thought maintained that given the President�s disposition he would not do anything in that regard, another expects that having spoken against corruption during his electioneering campaign, this is an excellent opportunity for him to act and so he would order one. We are on the side of the former, believing that it is not a feature of the President to order probes into matters impugning on the integrity of his appointees or his government. The disclosures by Martin Amidu which resonated across the country and beyond would have caused heads to roll had they been in other political dispositions. We think that it would be a mark of irresponsibility for the President not to order a transparent probe into the issues raised by his former Attorney General against the Deputy Information Minister. Winning the confidence of the citizenry is an important factor in governance but from all indications, President Mills is losing out on this as a result of his apparent lack of will or interest to deal with appointees who misconduct themselves in office. Ghanaians feel insulted by what would definitely be an indefinite silence on the part of the president as a junior appointee gets embroiled in the matter of judgment debt payment. It is serious enough when a government appointee is seen to be salivating at the prospect of what he is going to derive from a judgment debt collection. No wonder he has the guts to call his senior colleague and plead with him to pay the amount. Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa has insulted us for far too long and the source of his impunity is not far-fetched� the President has given him the green light to do as he pleases but the people of Ghana would take a decision on the status quo when they go to the polls at the end of the year. Rather than take cover from the embarrassment he suffered at the hands of Mr. Martin Amidu, we have learnt that he intends to host a press conference. Being a one-man platform, he would seek to use it to advance more lies to support the previous ones and possibly decline to answer questions from the media. We have had enough of the propaganda and if Ablakwa thinks he can use this platform to further insult us, we would not spare him our opprobrium.